Particle beam source apparatus, system and method
AssigneeAlpha Source LLC
InventorGlenn B. Rosenthal
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An ion source is disclosed including: a chamber disposed about a longitudinal axis and containing a gas, a magnetic confinement system configured to produce a magnetic field in a confinement region within the chamber, an electron cyclotron resonance driver which produces a time varying electric field which drives the cyclotron motion of electrons located within the confinement region, the driven electrons interacting with the gas to form a confined plasma. During operation, the magnetic confinement system confines the plasma in the confinement region such that a portion of atoms in the plasma experience multiple ionizing interactions with the driven electrons to form multiply ionized ions having a selected final ionization state.
Claims96
An ion source comprising:
- a chamber disposed about a longitudinal axis and containing a gas;
- a magnetic confinement system configured to produce a magnetic field in a confinement region within the chamber, wherein the confinement region is disposed about the axis and extends along the axis from a proximal end to a distal end, and wherein the magnetic field comprises:
- a first magnetic mirror located at the proximal end of the confinement region;
- a second magnetic mirror located at the distal end of the confinement region;
- a substantially uniform magnetic field disposed about and directed substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis, the substantially uniform magnetic field being located between the first and second magnetic mirrors;
- and
- an electron cyclotron resonance driver which produces a time varying electric field which drives the cyclotron motion of electrons located within the confinement region, said driven electrons interacting with the gas to form a confined plasma;
- wherein, during operation, the magnetic confinement system confines the plasma in the confinement region such that a portion of atoms in the plasma experience multiple ionizing interactions with the driven electrons to form multiply ionized ions having a selected final ionization state.
A method of generating an ion beam, comprising:
- providing a chamber disposed about a longitudinal axis and containing a gas;
- producing a magnetic field in a confinement region within the chamber, wherein the confinement region is disposed about the axis and extends along the axis from a proximal end to a distal end, and wherein the magnetic field comprises:
- a first magnetic mirror located at the proximal end of the confinement region;
- a second magnetic mirror located at the distal end of the confinement region;
- a substantially uniform magnetic field disposed about and directed substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis, the substantially uniform magnetic field being located between the first and second magnetic mirrors;
- producing a time varying electric field to drive the cyclotron motion of electrons located within the confinement region;
- causing said driven electrons interacting with the gas to form a confined plasma;
- and
- confining the plasma in the confinement region such that a portion of atoms in the plasma experience multiple ionizing interactions with the driven electrons to form multiply ionized ions having a selected final ionization state.
The method of 49, further comprising extracting the ion beam from the confinement region, wherein the beam comprises a portion of the ions are in the selected final ionization state.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.